Become an executive chef: How hard is it?

The range of a professional executive chef is not unreachable. There’s a difference between trying to be the best and being considered the best: with the first one you may think that if you work for a living, harder and harder, you will reach the top. And sometimes it’s just like that. But the question is: do you really enjoy it or it’s just a way to escape from other routines such as an office, papers, meetings with coworkers, and all that stuff that makes office hours so boring?

If you preferred the second option, welcome to a great life! A life full of sacrifice, but a sacrifice you will love day by day (without wanting to sound masochistic, 50 Shades or something like that). True chefs love what they do, and even if they make money with this profession, they will have passion for each thing they do, more than for the money they earn.

Executive chef: Here’s a prezzy for you

some tips you will need to work as if you were playing with toys.

1. First things first. A to-do list is great for a beginning, but there’s a time when it is not useful anymore: you’ll need to manage your time accurately to fulfill your tasks.

2. Speak! The basis of cooking is not to be the shiny star (after all, you will be the praised one). You must communicate everything to your collaborators and trust them! Do you have a team? Teamwork!

Collaboration and discussion are important. A brainstorm with your brigade sounds great: they will feel you are not a boss but a true friend, a leader who works with them as equals, each one on their own task. Being bossy is a deadly mistake many assume as positive. Guess what? Bossy bosses end alone.

3. Nothing speaks better for you than optimism and self-confidence. Of course, being realistic is always necessary; touching the ground is not bad at all: that’s called experience. More than once you may have thought that one of your dishes would be a total success… but the other one you didn’t trust so much is the real spiffy dish, the star, the genius! Yes, that’s common. Get accustomed: customers are a whole different world each one.

When your dish fails at becoming #1, plan B is not to cry over the spilled milk… stand up, cook again, and discover other tastes for your customers! You will find for sure that particular taste, the killer one.

If want to be an executive chef work hard, but don’t forget this must be your passion: no matter what you do to be appreciated: if you do what you love, you’ll be successful. Otherwise, people will notice it. They smell boredom and routine when they taste your dishes; it is a very particular taste, impossible to avoid. Go cook your dreams! Bon appetit!